'Triggering posts'

OP the definition of a phobia is that its an irrational fear therefore some phobias don't make sense to other people.

You probably get it worse than I do in that case!. You're probably told daily we're 'all on the spectrum'. No, no we're not Godammit! .

I have asd - trust me, I understand "oh I'm a bit like that"!! :)

I think you are picking apart my wording a tad unnecessarily there
I meant that there is no one single event that causes PTSD - rather than the image of soldiers coming back from war that many will think of primarily. I was referring to people who do have a diagnosis of ptsd following whatever event, I was not using it in the same vein as "a bit ocd"

I know what you mean. I work in Psychiatry and have met the criteria for PTSD in the past but I don't now - though I still have some residual symptoms.

I get a bit annoyed when people bandy it about as if it's something most people experience. It minimises the true, horrific, debilitating nature of a serious disorder.

You've probably experienced the same - 'oh I know what you're going through, after I was rear ended at a traffic light and got whiplash it took me ages to not feel anxious driving'. No, you don't know what I've been through!.

Fair enough. I don't talk about it much, because I end up getting cross with people who try to empathise but completely fail to get it, and then I just feel like a bitch.

That wasn't my reading of it TheFallen. The sentence was 'you can be phobic of anything (and in fact have PTSD over anything)'.

You can indeed be phobic of anything but you can't have PTSD over 'anything'. There are specific criteria. The experiences you're describing is the genuine use of the term 'triggering'; as in you have a diagnosis of PTSD and certain stimuli elicits a trauma - related response in keeping with a diagnosis of PTSD. You can have a PTSD response to 'anything' e.g smells, the weather etc when you have experienced or witnessed extreme trauma. It's part of the disorder. That is very different to saying 'you can have PTSD over anything'. Because you can't.

I'm not criticising the poster of that original comment btw, I think PTSD is a condition that is poorly understood by the general public and is thought to be a description of common thoughts/behaviours following a perceived traumatic event which do not mean that person has a serious and debilitating mental disorder.

The same as people say 'I'm a bit OCD' when what they mean is they like certain things to be organised in a certain way. That does not go anywhere close to a diagnosis of OCD but the public understanding seems to be that it is. We have developed a tendency as a society to pathologise what are 'quirks' or simply normal behaviour.

For instance as a real life example - you can be burgled when at a party. Completely normal to obessively check the doors/windows repeatedly before you go to bed afterwards. Feel invaded. Have mental images of someone going through your things, be hypervigilant in response to noise etc. Normal response to a traumatic event. But that isn't PTSD.

That happened to my friend and when she went to the GP about her anxiety and feelings he said 'sounds like PTSD'. Luckily she works in Psychiatry as I do and said no, it really doesn't!.

I assumed the "anything" for PTSD was in the context of the stimuli avoided rather than the nature of the trauma. For me, it is the location (and weather, and a certain type of fabric in fact) rather than mention of the trauma itself which set off the flashbacks. I avoid the word trigger.

I think it's good to put a phobia warning on some posts. If someone is phobic, it gives them a chance to either ignore the thread, or peep in to see if they can cope, rather than be startled by it.
I used to be terrified of bridges, after seeing an accident on one as a child. For a couple of decades I avoided them, then went to live on an island, where I had to learn to cope, or be stranded. The thing is, I was aware of what I was about to do and see every time. I can now drive over a bridge, albeint rather nervously. Opening a post and suddenly seeing something that freaks you out is different.
I am not tryptophobic as such, but the lotus heads do make me very very uncomfortable and nauseous, so i can sympathise.

TRIGGER WARNING

Should be follow by everyone posting these pics.

Just to add - a PP said you can have PTSD over 'anything'. You can't. There is specific diagnostic criteria for PTSD in the DSM-V and the first criteria that needs to be met is:

Exposure to actual or threatened death, serious injury or sexual violence in one (or more) of the following ways.

1. Directly experiencing the event (s).
2. Witnessing, in person the event (s) as it occurred to others.
3. Learning that the event (s) occurred to a close family member or close friend. In these cases the event (s) must have been violent or accidental.
4. Experiencing repeated or extreme exposure to aversive details of the event (s) e.g first responders collecting human remains, Police officers repeatedly exposed to details of child abuse - this does not apply to exposure through electronic media, television, movies, or pictures, unless this exposure is work related).

Trauma related symptoms are common and usually the normal reaction to a distressing event but PTSD is a serious mental disorder. But like some other mental disorders, some people seem to throw the term around as applicable to anyone who has trouble processing a traumatic event. And I see it here all the time!

Perhaps rather than adding TRIGGER WARNING, MNHQ could just label the threads with an appropriate warning e.g. "WARNING: Thread contains pictures of holes / spiders / snakes"

Because I agree, the generic 'Trigger warning' is being overused and therefore diluted which may render it ineffective. Or it might mean that someone who has genuine issues with PTSD avoids all threads including those with pictures of crumpets, when they might not need to.

I don't see why we need photos at all actually. Stick them on your profile if you must.

So if I want to start a thread showing people the snake in my garden, asking if the bruise on my foot looks nasty or opinions on the new paint colour in my hall way I should put that picture in my profile just in case people are scared of grey paint or some shit?

Someone up thread mentioned being 'petrified' of spiders- that's a much better description for most people other than 'phobic' my DS is full on arachnophobic- if she sees a one the fight/flight/freeze portion in her brain to the extent that she has passed out- me I hate the blighters and will flap, but am not phobic.

I once know a woman who had a phobia of buttons.
Could we please put a 'trigger warning' in the title of any haberdashery based threads please?

No, several posters saying that avoiding the phobia makes it worse - so obviously forcing us to confront our fears when we are sitting down for the first time that day to relax with a cup of tea would make things much better! I don't think talking about the thing (whatever it is) is to be avoided, but I don't want to click on a thread and see a picture of a snake or whatever.

Iggi999: is the "you" in your post me? Because I have never posted a photo, nor would I be likely to

So you're really doing us a favour by posting photos of spiders, snakes and holey things?
I don't see why we need photos at all actually. Stick them on your profile if you must.

Finding things aversive like patterns and holes does not mean you need trigger warnings. Avoiding whatever you find aversive just reinforces your response.

I'm not saying it's required but I'm saying if someone is sympathetic enough to understand something may upset someone I don't think a warning is a bad thing.

IMHO, it is the person with anxiety's responsibility to manage their condition, and I say this as someone with anxiety and a spider phobia.

Just because the sight of a spider triggers an anxiety response in me, doesn't mean the world should stop talking about spiders for me.

The trigger warnings and light hearted shit is getting out of hand.

Do you remember when we were treated like proper growed ups. We could say fuck and bollocks without pearl clutching, whinge about our OHs and In Laws without a string of is he depressed / have autism etc posts and decide if we wanted to look at threads. Twas all fields around here then, with benches for us to sit and drink gin on.

I have trypophobia and I would be forever grateful to someone who warned me not to click on a holey thread!

It really does affect me. I have anxiety badly anyway and it sort of kick starts it into overdrive. Especially lotus pods. A lady at a till once had a tattoo of them on her arm and I abandoned my shoppibg in front of her and left

It just makes my heart race and I sweat and I worry that the holes will appear in my skin. I have nightmares regularly about it.

So it might seem silly but opening a thread and seeing something like that would stress me for days.

The thing about phobias is that avoiding the phobic object makes it worse. Avoiding it makes the person feel better in the short term but in the long term makes it worse.

So trigger warnings work to encourage people's phobias to get worse and last longer.

Crumpet > toast! No crumbs when you have breakfast in bed!